travel writing, history writing

What Am I Doing Here/What I Am Doing Here

I’m currently in the early stages of my M3C-funded PhD research on travel writing at the University of Leicester. I recently wrote a piece for the blog of the nice folks of the Journey Place Narrative research group at Plymouth University about the peculiar challenges of straddling the creative-critical frontier in travel writing studies. Here’s the intro; follow the link at the bottom to read the full piece…

What am I doing here/what I am doing here

I am sitting on the top floor of a university library, a space filled with the furtive rustle of fast fingers on laptop keyboards and the industrial rattle of roller stacks on the move. I’ve been sitting here, or hereabouts, for the last couple of months. When I first set up camp the view to my left – cut into long thin strips by a bank of window-mounted solar panels – was over a city swamped in paling greenery. Today it is wine-dark and smoky. I still feel a little like a trespasser…